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"[Science fiction is ] That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Drop Shaft (Neutralization of Inertia) | ||
| An 'elevator shaft' in which the user can fall at the speed of gravity, then be stopped without inertia (i.e., instantly). |
Cadets in formation descend the full ninety stories of Wentworth Hall using an unusual elevator. Just the shaft of the elevator is used - and a device to neutralize inertia.
| In perfect alignment and cadence the little column marched down the hall. In their path yawned the shaft - a vertical pit some twenty feet square extending from Main floor to roof of the hall; more than a thousand feet of sheer air, cleared of all traffic by flaring red lights...
Dropping with a velocity of over two thousand feet per second though they were at the instant of impact, yet those five husky bodies came from full speed to an instantaneous, shockless, effortless halt at contact, for the drop had been made under complete neutralization of inertia - 'free' in space parlance. |
| Technovelgy from Galactic Patrol,
by E.E. 'Doc' Smith. Published by Street and Smith in 1937 Additional resources -
|
Inertia is a difficult property of matter to get around. As Isaac Newton wrote "The vis insita, or innate force of matter is a power of resisting, by which every body as much as in it lies, continues in its present state, whether it be of rest, or of moving uniformly forwards in a right line."
Compare to dropshaft from Deeper than the Darkness (1957) by Harlan Ellison and bounce tube from Robert Heinlein's 1956 juvenile Double Star.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Galactic Patrol
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and Technology by E.E. 'Doc' Smith
Tech news articles related to Galactic Patrol
Tech news articles related to works by E.E. 'Doc' Smith
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| The Desert Ship Sailed In Imagination |
| The Zapata Air Scooter Would Be Great In A Science Fiction Story |
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"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
